Laukuva (Loikeve in Yiddish) is situated in the Zamut (Zemaitija) region in
western Lithuania, about 40 km. north of the district administrative center
Tavrig (Taurage). Loikeve originally developed alongside an estate that is
mentioned in historical documents from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
In 1778 it was granted the right to a weekly market day and two fairs per year.

Until 1795 Loikeve was included in the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom. According to
the third division of Poland in the same year by the three superpowers of those
times, Russia, Prussia and Austria, Lithuania was divided between Russia and
Prussia. As was the case with most of the other towns of Lithuania, Loikeve
became part of the Russian Empire, first within the province (Gubernia)
of Vilna and from 1843 in the Kovno Gubernia. During the period of
Independent Lithuania (1918-1940) Loikeve was a county administrative
center in the Taurage district.

Jews settled in Loikeve in the eighteenth century. The community grew and
developed during Russian rule (1795-1915). According to the Russian census of
1897, the town had 753 residents, 418 being Jews (55%). During World War I
Loikeve was occupied by the German army who controlled it from 1915 till 1918,
at which time it was handed over to the new Lithuanian state.

After the establishment of Independent Lithuania its economic situation became
difficult. The American Red Cross sent clothing to Loikeve for distribution
amongst the needy, but the local priest refused to give any to Jews.

Following the passage of the Law of Autonomies for Minorities issued by the new
Lithuanian government, the Minister for Jewish Affairs, Dr. Menachem (Max)
Soloveitshik, ordered elections to community committees (Va'adei Kehilah)
to be held in the summer of 1919. In Loikeve a Va'ad of seven members
was elected, which was active for several years in all aspects of Jewish life.

The first census carried out by the new Lithuanian government in 1923, showed
724 residents in Loikeve, 305 of them being Jewish (42%).

During this period Loikeve Jews made their living mainly from trading. The main
road from Kovno to Memel (Klaipeda), which passed through Loikeve, played an
important role in the economy of the town. According to the government survey
of 1931 there were then seven shops, six of them in Jewish hands (86%). The
Jews also owned a wool combing workshop, a bakery, a sawmill and four
flourmills. There were only a few Jewish artisans. In the surrounding villages
four or five Jewish families earned their livelihood from agriculture.

Over the years the economic situation of Loikeve Jews deteriorated and many
emigrated to South Africa, America and Eretz-Yisrael. In 1939 there were
twenty telephone subscribers in Loikeve, of whom six were Jewish.

Jewish children received their education at a Talmud Torah and at the Hebrew
school of the Tarbuth chain. Many of the graduates continued their studies at the
Yeshivah or the Hebrew gymnasium in Telz or elsewhere. There was a library
with about 500 books in Hebrew and Yiddish.

The number of Loikeve Jews who supported Zionist ideals increased during the
1930s. Their votes for Zionist congresses were as follows:

CongressNo.

Year

TotalShkalim

Total Votes

Labor Party

ZS

ZZ

Revisionists

General Zionists

A

B

Grosmanists

Mizrakhi

15

1925

3

















16

1929

17

















18

1933



20

11



5





4

19

1935



112

40



4

2



66

There were branches of the Mizrahi party and of the Zionist youth organizations
Beitar and Hehalutz. The community also maintained welfare societies, including
Gemiluth Hesed, Linath Hatsedek and a women's society.

Religious life concentrated around the Beth Midrash. These rabbis, amongst others,
officiated in Loikeve:

Eliyahu-Mosheh Zilbert, 1902-1910
Hayim-Zelig Kaplinsky, from 1911 until his death in the Holocaust in 1941.

In the summer of 1940 Lithuania was annexed to the Soviet Union and became a
Soviet Republic. Following new regulations, factories owned by Jews were
nationalized, as were some Jewish shops. All Zionist parties and youth
organizations were disbanded and the Hebrew school was closed. Supply of goods
decreased and, as a result, prices soared. The middle class, mostly Jewish,
bore the brunt of this situation and the standard of living dropped gradually.
At this time about 300 Jews lived in Loikeve.

On the evening of June 24, 1941, two days after the invasion of the USSR by the
German army, German soldiers entered Loikeve. An immediate order was issued
that all Jews who had escaped to nearby villages could return home, where they
found their houses had been looted by their Lithuanian neighbors. The Jews were
ordered to wear a yellow Magen David on their garments and were forced
to bury Soviet soldiers who had died in battle, to remove dead horses, and to clean
German vehicles as well as latrines and rubbish piles. Germans broke into Rabbi
Kaplinsky's house and attempted to pluck out the rabbi's beard. The rabbi's daughters
intervened and offered them scissors, so the Germans were satisfied with cutting off
one edge of the beard.

On Sunday, June 29, 1941, the Germans together with Lithuanian auxiliary
police, rounded up all Jewish males aged fifteen years and older. They thrashed
them and forced them to assemble in the market place where they were made to
hand over everything they had in their pockets. One man, whose pockets were
empty, was beaten to death. All this was watched by passing Lithuanians on
their day off, who found it entertaining.

Afterwards the men were transferred by trucks to the Mastubarn camp, about
twenty kilometers from Heydekrug (now Silute). This camp was a section of the
central working camp of Heydekrug. A week later other men who had just arrived
in the town or were from nearby villages, were brought to this camp and forced
to dig drainage channels. This work lasted from dawn till evening and the
workers would receive 300 grams of stale bread and half a liter of watery soup
per day. The German Meister treated them brutally. In winter, when drainage
work was impossible, the Jews were sent to the nearby Stonishken railway
station, where they had to load wagons.

The women and children and one old and poor man remained in the town. Every day
new orders were imposed: they had to hand over the Lithuanian flags which they
possessed; they were forbidden to leave the town or buy food from peasants;
they had to hand over all books and Torah scrolls which the Germans then
burned. Germans and Lithuanians would enter the Jewish houses and ask for
clothes and money, ostensibly for the men in the camp, at the same time
stealing everything they fancied.

On July 8, 1941 the women and children were rushed out of their houses and
taken to the Beth Midrash. There they were kept for four days without
food or water, in subhuman conditions. After that they were transferred by
trucks to the Geruliai camp, about ten kilometers from Telz, where thousands
of women and children from the surrounding towns had been collected. On
Shabbath, August 30, 1941 (7th of Elul, 5701) the elderly women
and the children were murdered. According to Soviet sources 1,580 men, women
and children were buried in mass graves at this site.

The remaining women and girls were transported to the Telz ghetto and with the
liquidation of this ghetto on December 24, 1941 (4th of Teveth 5701)
they were murdered in Rainiai village, about six kilometers from Telz. According
to Soviet sources 840 men, women and children were buried in this mass grave.

Seven women and one child survived, having been hidden by Lithuanian peasants.

In July 1943 the men of the Heydekrug camp were transferred to Auschwitz. On
arrival one hundred of them were sent to the gas chambers. The others were
taken to Warsaw two months later in order to evacuate the ruins of the ghetto.
Several died in a typhus epidemic, and the remainder were sent to Dachau
concentration camp. Only four Lithuanian Jews survived to be liberated by the
American army. Josef Aharonovitz, who arrived in Dachau unconscious, was
transferred to the sick room by a Kapo, where after two months of devoted care
by a Frenchman, he recovered and survived.

The above article is an excerpt from Protecting Our Litvak Heritage
by Josef Rosin. The book contains this article along with many others, plus an
extensive description of the Litvak Jewish community in Lithuania that provides
an excellent context to understand the above article. Click here to see where
to obtain the book.

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose
of fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
This material may not be copied, sold or bartered without permission of the copyright holders: Josef Rosin and Joel Alpert.

JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of the translation.The reader may wish to refer to the original material for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.